IN RETROSPECT 2016 NEW INSIGHTS DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING INCORPORATING WORSHIP AND PREACHING CREATIVELY AS REFLECTION, CONFESSION, REPENTANCE AND RENEWAL

Transcription

1 IN RETROSPECT 2016 NEW INSIGHTS DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING INCORPORATING WORSHIP AND PREACHING CREATIVELY AS REFLECTION, CONFESSION, REPENTANCE AND RENEWAL By Reverend Nicole Aimiee Macaluso Collins, FODM BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1992 MFA, Northern Illinois University 1995 Trinity Evangelical Divinity School: MACS Master of Arts in Christian Studies 2014 MAM Master of Arts in Ministry 2014 A CAPSTONE APPLIED PROJECT Originally Submitted to the faculty In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degrees of Master of Arts in Christian Studies & the Master of Arts in Ministry At Trinity International University Deerfield, Illinois April 2014 Copyright by Reverend Nicole Aimiee Macaluso Collins, FODM 1

2 Abstract The discipleship task for Lutheran worship and preaching is to reflect on the four key elements of what Reformer Martin Luther called daily remembering your baptism. The spiritual formation process of daily remembering your baptismal calling into being/ becoming a servant leader is reflection, confession, repentance and renewal. Four worship services and one sermon were written, delivered and discussed in light of the church plants The Gathering for Christ and The Gathering North s missional statement of purpose and vision for communities of disciples focused upon the why of gathering before scattering over the how of traditional church practices. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION...3 Lutheran worship in light of addressing discipleship Being creative and Orthodox...3 The need to develop liturgy that engages Familiarity does indeed breed contempt...4 What the future holds Where to go from here? A MONTH OF WORSHIP...5 The Season of Epiphany The Perfect time for enlightening Spiritual Formation...5 February 2 nd, 2014 Step One Reflection....6 February 9 th, 2014 Step Two Confession...7 February 16 th, 2014 Step Three Repentance...9 February 23 rd, 2014 Step Four Renewal CURRENT REFLECTIONS ON PREACHING REFERENCE LIST...10 Appendix...11 **Please see current bulletin samples on the tables 2

3 Chapter One Introduction The whole life which we live ought to be a baptism, and to fulfil the sign or sacrament of baptism; since we have been set free from all other things and given up to baptism alone, that is, to death and resurrection. Martin Luther 1 This project emerged out of a need to expand and address spiritual formation within a 21 st century context of a church plant. For the past number of years I have helped to start and serve The Gathering for Christ, The Gathering North and most recently the Grace Hub church plants. The Gathering for Christ as well as the Gathering North remain unaffiliated as well as considering itself more about discipleship than doctrine, hence it is addressing itself of Lutheran roots. The Grace Hub which began as the Grace Hub Discipleship Ministries is still in formation to as well encapsulate the Lutheran Orthodox Church. In fact I consider the Grace Hub to be a chartered online/ house church ministry. The original capstone project became a monthly series of worship bulletins created to specifically address different discipleship themes for the Gathering North. These themes interconnected to teach an overarching plan of action for the disciple s spiritual formation. Each worship service addressed the why of worship over the how of worship as well as address the problems of worship in the Lutheran context. My initial desire and interest in this project stem from seeking to create and implement a cutting edge theology of corporate fellowship and discipleship. Where I have grown in this area is in connecting prayers and fine tuning the rubrics of confession and absolution to the lectionary even more. My creative background has been afforded to shine in writing and leading worship as well as preaching. Unlike formulaic patterns found in most liturgically concerned communities; I want to enhance and develop liturgically-involved worship that reaches above and beyond traditional Orthodox Lutheran worship formation. The worship I have designed and implemented is crafted to reach the internal church of the congregant s heart. In reaching this inner sanctuary, the rubrics were painstakingly crafted to motivate transformation and thus spiritually build/ grow the level of spiritual formation the individual is at. Other elements within the bulletins addressed three areas. The first area was to address engagement and guided disengagement from the bulletin for the purposes of growing genuine community and engagement. The second was to address discipleship as interwoven motifs that educate and guide. The third was to speak to the Lutheran roots aspect or integrity to the service. The original dates were for the entire month of February s Sundays. Those dates included February 2nd, February 9th, February 16th and February 23 rd of The bulletins use the SOLA Lectionary (the Missouri Synod Lutheran lectionary adopted by the North American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ communities.) as well as the weekly discipleship themes beginning with the discipleship daily spiritual formation process: Reflection, Confession, Repentance and Renewal (the final stage of realizing the transforming self). February 23 rd, 2014 I preached. Lutheran Worship in light of addressing Discipleship In expanding on the Lutheran roots skeletal substructure to the discipleship worship design; the means of Grace as well as the Corporate Confession are critical. The means of Grace is the Lutheran 1 Luther, Martin ( ). On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (Kindle Locations ). Kindle Edition. 3

4 understanding of how the Word of God and presence of God is enacted Grace in several areas of the service such as the reading of scripture, the art of preaching and the consecration of the elements. Expanding upon the importance of Holy Communion enacted as a means of Grace; it is of vital importance in announcing Christ s actual presence in, with and under the bread and wine through the OBSERVED Word consecrating the elements before they are given out. Part of the beauty of bringing people to the table as a disciple is to SEE, Hear, and Taste that the Lord is Good and that the sacramental union of the elements to Christ is honored. Expanding upon the Corporate Confession s importance as a staple substructure to Lutheran (rooted) worship. It is most necessary and Biblical that we address our need to both lift up and reconcile our sins unto God for deliverance as well as the fact that accountability is taught as a staple to discipleship action. Accountability and intentionality are built starting with the initial rubric of the Corporate Confession and absolution to harbor a personal humility and obedience to God. Through this personal humility and obedience to God, we see the imperative to our cost of discipleship and living into our calling to servant leadership for Christ Jesus and to love neighbor. The limits of standard Lutheran and non-denominational ecclesiology are something of an over-arching mission for both Pastor Dawson and myself to address in this series. How do we form genuine Koinonia away from the overly formed institutionalism of Church? The Gathering for Christ and the Gathering North are committed to being a community of one on one, faith-based disciples that is not just a Sunday event, or social gathering. It is to be a discipleship spiritual formation camp that through gathering, we learn and grow to be able to scatter and be the church abroad. It is a complex goal of thinking outside the people and the steeple, mentality of being/ living--missionally as the people of God. Being Creative and Orthodox My first career in the fine arts and teaching college level art and history has lent itself tremendously to ministry. It was almost as if God lead me through my conversion experience to fuse my creativity into every aspect of parish ministry; worship in particular being my passion. In continuing to speak about blessings in regards to Orthodox Lutheranism; I have been privileged to serve yet another community First and Santa Cruz Lutheran Church of Joliet. What has been fantastic experience for me there is working from the standard Lutheran Book of Worship or LBW. Pastor Forni is very traditional as well as highly liturgical. His worship is very ornate and contextualized to the missional aspect of his parish community which is the Spanish speaking congregation of Santa Cruz. Having had the opportunity to serve in a very traditional setting has perfectly prepared me for utilizing and enhancing traditional LBW worship. Yes, many rubrics do cross that familiarity boundary but observing how this particular Body responds to it exhibits how well it does serve their interests and needs. I have also been afforded the blessing of being welcomed as a seminarian into the highly Orthodox Lutheran ministerium of the Society of the Holy Trinity. Observing and participating in their prayerful, highly liturgical retreats have been another wonderful layer of spiritual formation for me not just as a pastor in training but coming to design this worship series that I had implemented for the Gathering North the entire month of February. The need to develop liturgy that engages Familiarity does indeed breed contempt 4

5 Fusing creativity into worship without tearing down set standards is the challenge and also at the discretion of pastor. Sometimes I have felt in serving both communities that my style of worship is definitely seeking to be somewhere in between highly liturgical and highly sensitive to spiritual formation needs. For instance, I do love the ecumenical creeds of the church, but they need to be truthfully heard that is the problem with working strictly from a hymnal s set rubrics. I also love the corporate confession but if congregants are reading the same set confession each and every week... Are they truly hearing it deeply in the place that matters? Speaking to hearing deeply in the place that matters is where I am and where I came to putting this worship together as well as even composing at the time, the sermon for February 23 rd, It is of my conviction as a pastor that we engage ourselves creatively as best as we can in order to truthfully, realistically, authentically and faithfully disciple our flock to grow in their faith. Doing church, can become mere theatre if you over engage in the familiar as well as not guide and train the congregation to break away from the paper and truthfully experience worshipping together their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What the future holds? Where to go from here? Starting on the ground floor in church planting, I do aspire to someday be able to afford to plant an outside, physical Lutheran church myself but for the moment I am looking forward to serving an established community with an open mind to focus on creatively building a strong community of disciples ready, equipped and engaged for ministry beyond the steeple and the people. As this entire journey has been walking by faith; I pray for the Lord to continue to build and equip me for ministry so that I would be able to best serve His people. The Season of Epiphany became the perfect focus & The Perfect time for enlightening Spiritual Formation in 2014 Planning and serendipity played a lot to determine the best time to propose this worship project for the Gathering North and what better time than the season of Epiphany to do so! One of the new learning experiences I can truly appreciate from my time at TEDS has been seeing beyond the liturgical calendar and thinking in terms of large expository expanses into theological themes or the scriptures. Trinity has greatly afforded me to develop a much more thorough approach not just to exegesis but to theologically reflecting on an expansive theme. What does the theme of Epiphany mean? According to the LCMS (Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod) standards of the church year it is our time to focus on the revelation of who Jesus is: both true God and man. This is a time of revealed wisdom or as the Greek says for Epiphany to make manifest. I understand this that God has indeed come into our world for the sake of the world. This is a time of joy and enlightenment. Being a prodigy of conversion, intentional spiritual formation is also to be a time of great joy and personal insight as Jesus disciples. This made the perfect time and Pastor Dawson helped to make the Gathering North the perfect place to develop and deliver this series of worship. 5

6 Step One Reflection February 2 nd, 2014 bulletin One of the first rubrics I addressed to speak to the theme of Reflection was the corporate Confession. In the Lutheran church, the corporate Confession is a central introduction to the flow of worship. It sets up both the why and how of worship for the particular evening. To begin even composing the body, I needed to take into consideration the liturgical season as well as the lectionary texts for the day. This Sunday s bulletin was reflecting the 4th Sunday After Epiphany according to the SOLA Lectionary to which all of our services and preaching are focused around at the Gathering North. The texts for this Sunday included Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 and St. Matthew s Gospel 5:1-12. The Beatitudes essentially shaped most of this bulletin in light of the discipleship theme of reflection. In renaming the corporate Confession, Gathering, We Reflect; Justification became an element at the heart of reflecting. We are accountable to God and rely upon Him to help guide our intentionality in all we do and say to His Will. With this early in the series bulletin there are a few things not implemented yet and some that would be later removed from the series to enhance or diminish areas that work better as such. The scripture readings themselves were not closed with the standard response of: The Word of the Lord, Thanks Be to God. I would later determine it was better to include this rubric in keeping with both Lutheran tradition and comfortable/ familiarity for the congregants who would be starting to join our community. The other element to see significant change after this Sunday s bulletin was the inclusion of the Words of Institution. They were originally requested by Pastor Dawson to have complete in the bulletin. After some post worship dialogue, he agreed to allow me to exclude them but include the statement I formulated saying: Please take this opportunity to reflect in your heart how this Means of Grace Christ actual presence feeds and restores your soul. As St. Paul would say Listen with your heart wide open. Then, TASTE, SEE & DELIGHT that the Lord is Good! What was very important to note post worship for the other services to follow is that people weren t staring at a bulletin and looking intently at the pastor officiating the elements. One of the things I really try to do is to get people away from staring at a bulletin... We don t use projectors at the Gathering North or the Grace Hub, which on another level is fine with me for hearing and experiencing is more important than reading. If I had my choice, I wouldn t even include the scripture lessons printed up. The surveys, however, I have taken over the years about that are always mixed. Some congregants really want to see the texts while they re being read others like it for future study on their own. For the latter reason, I keep the texts intact in the bulletin. Another important thematic rubric I have been very particular on including are creedal statements. There are so many Lutheran churches that whether they are doing a blended service to a high liturgy use the standard creeds continually. As the statement goes I feel on some levels it burgeons the notion: Familiarity breeds contempt... Are people going through the motions and not even hearing the Words anymore? Or are they just being included to address a particular faction of the congregation? The Gathering North s congregant Body thus far is fairly mixed in age and attitude. So what I have done here is find creedal sounding statements that both address the themes of the day as well as seem familiar but actually are very different and get people to truly think about what they re saying. This particular Sunday seemed appropriate to include more of a litany than a continual read in unison statement. This affirmation of faith which I titled Gathering to Affirm the Spirit, repeats four words We believe in... and in the response section God! As we know historically St. Paul penned the very first creed in Philippians 2:11 being: Jesus is Lord. This involved litany of affirmation does something similar in a 6

7 quasi-indirect way. The lector /worship leader says, We believe in... and the congregants say a sentence ending always with God! This in way is familiarity without the contempt! One of the things I have enjoyed discovering through liturgical resources is finding creative variations on litanies and creedal statements. My first exposure to this was actually through working at a Presbyterian Church a few years ago. I was the office administrator and helped to compose the bulletins each week. The Pastor there was very keen on a different statement every week. In my Lutheran realm of experience, I was not accustomed to that but actually think that successfully addresses the problem of people just going through the motions within a service. The only place I feel there should always be a permanent implied rubric is the Lord s Prayer. That is before the creedal statement each week as well as it is an aspect of the service, but most everyone in the Gathering North says the traditional form of the prayer. I have only typed in the following bulletins to recite a form that is comfortable to you to encourage and comfort visitors. I also believe though too, that this is something that every Christian should have memorized and really should not be printed in a bulletin. The rubric penned just before the benediction comes from a wonderful discovery I made at the North American Lutheran Church s Discipleship mission s festival November of 2013, being composing prayers out of scripture. The name I gave for this bulletin s prayer was For a Life steeped in Prayer. I essentially reflected on the Beatitudes to create a prayer that would be a spiritual formation prayer for each and every congregant. An insight I have had from creating these prayers is that we need to work away from set doxologies and be more creative with prayer to disciple and feed more people. The Benediction is also formulated different per bulletin except on some days where the lessons or service beckons repeating it again. As you will note, the subtitle of the Benediction comes from The Gathering s theology of discipleship We gather to scatter; hence you get Scattering Proclamation. On a final note for this bulletin, why I love composing worship is it has been both an artistic challenge and blessing for me. I want to see how far I can go pushing the envelope so to speak, with liturgy addressing, encapsulating the why over the how, of worship. Can the Words grasp someone to walk away remembering the worship as living it? Step Two Confession February 9 th, 2014 bulletin One of the first rubrics I addressed to speak to the theme of Reflection was the corporate Confession. In the Lutheran church, the corporate Confession is a central introduction to the flow of worship. It sets up both the why and how of worship for the particular evening. To begin even composing the body, I needed to take into consideration the liturgical season as well as the lectionary texts for the day. This Sunday s bulletin was reflecting the 4th Sunday After Epiphany according to the SOLA Lectionary to which all of our services and preaching are focused around at the Gathering North. The texts for this Sunday included Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 and St. Matthew s Gospel 5:1-12. The Beatitudes essentially shaped most of this bulletin in light of the discipleship theme of reflection. In renaming the corporate Confession, Gathering, We Reflect; Justification became an element at the heart of reflecting. We are accountable to God and rely upon Him to help guide our intentionality in all we do and say to His Will. 7

8 With this early in the series bulletin there are a few things not implemented yet and some that would be later removed from the series to enhance or diminish areas that work better as such. The scripture readings themselves were not closed with the standard response of: The Word of the Lord, Thanks Be to God. I would later determine it was better to include this rubric in keeping with both Lutheran tradition and comfortable/ familiarity for the congregants who would be starting to join our community. The other element to see significant change after this Sunday s bulletin was the inclusion of the Words of Institution. After some post worship dialogue, I formulated the following saying: Please take this opportunity to reflect in your heart how this Means of Grace Christ actual presence feeds and restores your soul. As St. Paul would say Listen with your heart wide open. Then, TASTE, SEE & DELIGHT that the Lord is Good! What was very important to note post worship for the other services to follow is that people weren t staring at a bulletin and looking intently at the pastor officiating the elements. One of the things I really try to do is to get people away from staring at a bulletin... We don t use projectors at the Gathering North which on another level is fine with me for hearing and experiencing is more important than reading. If I had my choice, I wouldn t even include the scripture lessons printed up. The surveys, however, I have taken over the years about that are always mixed. Some congregants really want to see the texts while they re being read others like it for future study on their own. For the latter reason, I keep the texts intact in the bulletin. Another important thematic rubric I have been very particular on including are creedal statements. There are so many Lutheran churches that whether they are doing a blended service to a high liturgy use the standard creeds continually. As the statement goes I feel on some levels it burgeons the notion: Familiarity breeds contempt... Are people going through the motions and not even hearing the Words anymore? Or are they just being included to address a particular faction of the congregation? The Gathering North s congregant Body thus far is fairly mixed in age and attitude. So what I have done here is find creedal sounding statements that both address the themes of the day as well as seem familiar but actually are very different and get people to truly think about what they re saying. This particular Sunday seemed appropriate to include more of a litany than a continual read in unison statement. This affirmation of faith which I titled Gathering to Affirm the Spirit, repeats four words We believe in... and in the response section God! As we know historically St. Paul penned the very first creed in Philippians 2:11 being: Jesus is Lord. This involved litany of affirmation does something similar in a quasi-indirect way. The lector /worship leader says, We believe in... and the congregants say a sentence ending always with God! This in way is familiarity without the contempt! One of the things I have enjoyed discovering through liturgical resources is finding creative variations on litanies and creedal statements. My first exposure to this was actually through working at a Presbyterian Church a number of years ago. I was the office administrator and helped to compose the bulletins each week. The Pastor there was very keen on a different statement every week. In my Lutheran realm of experience, I was not accustomed to that but actually think that successfully addresses the problem of people just going through the motions within a service. The only place I feel there should always be a permanent implied rubric is the Lord s Prayer. That is before the creedal statement each week as well as it is an aspect of the service, but most everyone in the Gathering North says the traditional form of the prayer. I have only typed in the following bulletins to recite a form that is comfortable to you to encourage and comfort visitors. I also believe though too, that this is something that every Christian should have memorized and really should not be printed in a bulletin. 8

9 The rubric penned just before the benediction comes from a wonderful discovery I made at the North American Lutheran Church s Discipleship mission s festival this past November being composing prayers out of scripture. The name I gave for this bulletin s prayer was For a Life steeped in Prayer. I essentially reflected on the Beatitudes to create a prayer that would be a spiritual formation prayer for each and every congregant. An insight I have had from creating these prayers is that we need to work away from set doxologies and be more creative with prayer to disciple and feed more people. The Benediction is also formulated different per bulletin except on some days where the lessons or service beckons repeating it again. As you will note, the subtitle of the Benediction comes from The Gathering s theology of discipleship We gather to scatter; hence you get Scattering Proclamation. On a final note for this bulletin, why I love composing worship is it has been both an artistic challenge and blessing for me. I want to see how far I can go pushing the envelope so to speak, with liturgy addressing, encapsulating the why over the how, of worship. Can the Words grasp someone to walk away remembering the worship as living it? Step Three Repentance February 16 th, 2014 bulletin With this particular bulletin, the third theme to the four fingers of daily discipleship is addressed: Repentance. Confession was the previous week s theme. The Sermon on the Mount continues this week as well as another snippet from St. Paul s 1st letter to the Corinthians. The Gospel and Paul s treatise to the Corinthians is centered around obedience to being accountable to God in service and in lifestyle. In many ways living into this theme takes a reconciling, humble introspection. Speaking of humbling introspection; in reviewing the old 1958 SBH Lutheran Hymnal, you could even see at a glance, how stiff rubrics were addressed and transformed into what would eventually become the 1978 LBW (the Lutheran Book of Worship). The corporate Confession was what would greatly change from the SBH to the LBW especially in regards to the public confession s absolution: [SBH page 252] On the other hand, by the same authority, I declare unto the impenitent and unbelieving, that so long as they continue in their impenitence, God hath not forgiven their sins, and will assuredly visit their iniquities upon them, if they turn not from their evil ways, and come to true repentance and faith in Christ, ere the day of Grace be ended. It is probably true, that most congregants do not want to be subjected to hearing this kind of challenge placed upon their hearts to contemplate. I juxtaposed the standard absolution doxology that everyone knows nearly by heart after an acknowledgment and a moment of silence. What made this particular Confession s strength however, was hearing the shocking and the familiar juxtaposed alongside apologetics pointing to a great purpose of finding and building a reconciled relationship to God. The Confession as well continued to reflect the hope of the Epiphany season and its great message of transformation. The creedal statement used this week is a favorite of mine I have used before when I used to compose worship for the Gathering s main church plant. Much like the Augsburg Confession s 3rd article, Irenaeus statement sounds very similar to the Apostles creed but is just different enough to get people engaged to hear differently. At the former Gathering location some feedback I received was that they either wanted to know 9

10 more about who Irenaeus was or that some thought it was too strange to include his name... I ve not come across that issue here and I hope to continue to grow a long list of creedal statements such as this to use. The closing prayer and the benediction this week highlight both the themes of repentance and transformation. In fact to carry through into the final Sunday of the aspects of daily discipleship; I used this same benediction for the last Sunday. It is being truthful about what we are to do in light of the Gospel that needs to be spoken to the loudest in the sending. That was the most disappointing for me in researching other sources. The sending benedictions were either very boring or frankly just shied away from being truthful and fruitful: Convert me, Change my heart, My witness in the world for your sake (is needed)! Step Four Renewal February 23 rd, 2014 This bulletin makes the concluding discipleship finger of reflection, confession, repentance renewal. It also makes the boldest statement about the season of Epiphany s statement of the Gospel: abiding in love to fully develop (the final stage of spiritual formation). The Confession rubric for this month I titled Gathering, We are Renewed. The inspirational resources I drew from were Martin Luther s Small Catechism, Psalm 119 and from Psalms Now! Beginning in a 1st person voice the Psalmist draws us into beginning to reflect on being renewed. With our confession coming through Luther s words around what Baptism means for daily living; we are being taken back to that basin where we are to wash away our sin, renewing daily our commitment to grow as Jesus disciples. Out of the four Sundays, this creedal statement is the most unique or radical, for it is from a now martyred Zimbabwe pastor The Disciple s creed. It is a bold witness, profession of faith and determinism that holds profound hope, insight and empowerment to read in unison. An added benefit has been that it is as well in the first person. Out of the numerous creedal statements, affirmations I have incorporated in bulletins for both the Gathering and Gathering North; this statement has been very well received by the congregations. I had one of the congregants tell me after worship that after having communion and then saying this statement it was a little overwhelming for her Just what I needed to say, you found the words. When the Why of worship comes through strongly over and above the how it is in moments like this that you went beyond the paper, beyond familiarity and were heard in the heart the true place of worship. The closing prayer I composed for this service encapsulates the whole theme of the spiritual fruit born when one is willing and intentional to love, grow into the lifestyle of GRACE the full spiritual formation path of the disciple. The benediction or scattering proclamation is the same as last week to purposely be familiar as well as accent: Conversion, Change, Repentance and Witness. References Bansemer, Richard F. We Believe; A prayer book based on the Augsburg Confession; ALPB (American Lutheran Publicity Bureau) NYNY (1999) ISBN: Luther, Martin Luther s Catechism; Northwestern Publishing House Milwaukee, WI (1982) ISBN: X Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal; Service Book and Hymnal, music edition, Augsburg Publishing House Minneapolis, MN (1958); 9th printing (1965) InterLutheran Worship Commission; Lutheran Book of Worship, Augsburg Publishing House Minneapolis, MN (1978) ISBN-13:

11 Appendix A I February 2 nd, 2014 Bulletin 11

12 12

13 Appendix B II February 9 th, 2014 Bulletin 13

14 14

15 Appendix C III February 16 th, 2014 Bulletin 15

16 16

17 Appendix D IV February 23 rd, 2014 Bulletin 17

18 18